Everybody Wants to Be Italian

There are a couple of flaws with this film. It feel slightly untidy and rough around the edges. It obviously lacked funding and was clearly targeted at the Sat night American market. It lacks the strong script of an independent film, but also the big budget for a good cinematographer, or at least a screenwriter to tie up the loose ends.

I was expecting two distinctive things from this film - stereotypical Italians and one dimensional characters, orbiting the main cast and providing us with some ethnicity based comedy. At one point we see a man in a white vest shouting from a window!!! The second aspect of the film I was expecting was two lovable main characters. Unfortunately Cerina Vincent failed to soften at any point during the film. I understand this is how her character is written, but any characteristic which would endear her to the audience failed to materialise, even towards the end of the film. Jay Jablonski put in a surprisingly good performance as a rude, childish but ultimately likable stalker. He just about managed to rescue his character despite the poor script. Unfortunately his character lacked emotional consistency and therefore came across as slightly mentally ill, perhaps with a touch of schizophrenia.

If you like hearing Italian dialogue in a film, (which was all very authentic, apart from the two old people), then go see Everybody Wants to Be Italian, but there isn't much else holding it together.

This film is intended to be a light-hearted romp with some outrageous gags, but is actually an inept cliché-ridden mess with key characters who vary between gullible, unlikeable and delusional. Infantile Jake (Jay Jablonski) pines for women he can't have. He's obsessed with his ex, who's married and has kids. They broke up EIGHT years ago! It's too insane and too implausible to be cute or funny. The word "stalker" comes to mind.

I only watched this because of Cerina Vincent, who has an amusing reaction to a date-gone-wrong with Jake. This was probably the best part, given the film dwells on socially awkward and painfully contrived situations.

While there are some amusing characters in the fish market, it's not enough to save this fiasco. To be fair, I thought the film might redeem itself in the second act and turn into something decent. But NOOO ... the third act is a HUGE shark-jump. The pat happy ending is one big soapy cliché and doesn't help except to signal relief from watching this disaster unfold. This movie is one long FACE-PALM. I give it three (3) stars, as there ARE some (barely) OK moments.

I think the critics who don't like this movie just don't get either. :)

I didn't know what to expect when I went in to see "Everybody Wants to Be Italian," I knew it was romantic comedy that was centered around a relationship between two people who are not Italian, but pretend to be because they think that's the other one's ethnicity.

Jake is the owner of fish store who has been stalking his ex-girlfriend who is now married with three kids, for the past 8 years, he even thinks one of the kids is his.

His employees(John Enos, John Kapelos, Richard Libertini) who are also his therapists/partners in crime decide to take some decisive action and fix him up with a beautiful girl named Maria,(Cerina Vincent) who they think is Italian.

The plan works to some degree and with the support of his other friends around Boston, including Penny Marshall in a brief cameo, they are able to get Jack to see the light and pay attention to Maria. Lot's of good one liners to keep the audience laughing throughout, most of the theater had full belly laugh out loud moments, which was good to hear.

I credit writer-director Jason Todd Ipson for keeping things simple and true to the natural process of dating and life, the girls always want what they can't have. Really easy on the eyes is Cerina Vincent as Marsia, who manages to shine despite typically being cast in horror films. This one is much better than advertised and one to watch this fall.

I attended a screening of this movie. It was wrought with clichés and very unfunny jokes and set ups. I think the other comments were by people who must've worked on the movie or been family members of the cast. I'm amazed this movie cost $3-$4 million without any real stars. Where did the budget go? It obviously didn't go to writers for re-writes. Nice thought to bank on the success of Big Fat Greek Wedding, but a major miss. There was little or any spark between the main characters and the inciting incident was a bit flimsy at best. The direction was uninspired and looked like a student film.

I don't even know what it means Everybody Wants to Italian. Is that a real saying. I've never heard it.